It looks like my ability to get out and see the area is slowly building. Still no tropical beaches or waterfalls or volcanoes or anything awesome like that, but I did go see a couple of sights today. So let's see how that went...
I decided to start the day with a trip to the Ayala Museum. However, I needed to find a currency exchange place first. The money I got at the airport is nearly spent and I have some US currency to exchange. You see these places everywhere, but naturally when you want one you can't find one.
Then an odd thing happened. As I was walking through one of the underpasses, some random guy said hi to me and shook my hand and greeted me. He said he works at my office building as one of the security guards. Um... ok. So he recognizes the white guy, that's fine and all. But he continues to make conversation. Ok, I can be friendly.
At some point I mention that I'm on my way to the Ayala Museum, and I ask him if he knows of a local money changing place where I can get some proper currency. He says he does and that he'll take me there. Sweet, very helpful, thank you.
We then begin walking all over creation. Seriously, he led me further from the hotel than I've yet been. The neighborhood gets a bit less upper-crust, though not exactly ghetto. I ask where we're actually going. I guess he knows a place, and he tells me that the ones near the hotels don't have good rates because they're just catering to tourists.
Eventually we get to the place. Coincidentally enough, on the way there we pass a restaurant that a colleague recommended. So I made a note of the location in order to return to that restaurant. The money changing place was sketchy to say the least. But it was honest, so no problems there. I thank the man for his help, now I'm ready to go back.
I'd mentioned to him earlier that I also wanted to go to the Mall of Asia today, and he says we can just go there now. No.... see, no. I'm glad you helped me and all, and I appreciate it, but we're not spending the day together. Oh, but it's his daughter's birthday and he admits that he was hoping I'd help him out. Ok, well, he did lead me all over creation to this place, so I gave him a tip. He says the ice cream for his daughter is more than that. Look, buddy, no. I gave you 200 pesos. The cab ride from the airport was 440 pesos, and they actually drove me. I realize 200 pesos is very little money. Blame your economy, not me. It's a generous tip in this case.
Ok, with that unpleasantness behind me, I went back to the Ayala Museum:
Upon entering the museum I was told by the security guard that photography is not permitted inside. Seriously? I can't take pictures of your precious museum? Ok, I'll just keep the camera in my pocket, sir. Except of course that I'm not. Cause I'm an American, so fuck you that's why. I'll photograph everything all up in this piece. Especially funny things...
Like "chastity covers" made of gold. Centuries ago, these adorned the vaginas of beautiful high-born women. Too bad they were behind glass and I couldn't sniff them. I also found...
"Orifice covers." So, sort of the same concept I guess. Clearly, if you had an orifice, ancient Filipinos had gold jewelry to cover it.
They also had creepy masks. No ancient culture would be complete without creepy masks. God damn this is a lot of gold. After I was done with the gold exhibit I moved on to I guess a clothing exhibit, where I discovered...
A child's underpants. Giggidy. And, is it just me, or does this person (I can't discern the gender... fucking Filipino lady-boys) look high as shit?:
Clearly there's more to that cigarette than meets the eye. After the clothing exhibit I move on to an art exhibit. Art is cool, but the first thing that caught my eye wasn't a painting. It was this:
Is that a seismograph? What the shit is a seismograph doing here? Just... on the floor... in the museum. What the fuck, Philippines? Ok, let's look at some art...
Armored mech, Filipino style. Nice.
A hippie chick? Is this one high, too? And why it this on the wall instead of on a canvas or something? I don't get these people. So instead of trying to understand the art, I'm just going to caption it with what I think the person in the art is saying...
"Dude, wanna see how far I can shove this stick up my nose? I bet I can touch my brain, man."
"Damn it, now you made me forget what I was going to say."
Ok, that was fun. And the museum ended shortly thereafter. It was pretty small. So I headed back to the hotel for a little bit before going to the Mall of Asia. On my way I stopped at a local outdoor market to pick up some local foods and whatnot for my room...
Ministry of Mushrooms. Awesome.
What in holy hell are those things? Is that some kind of fruit? They look like the pods from that episode of Space Ghost Coast To Coast. You know, the one with Steven Wright. I may have to return to this mystery someday. If that's a tasty fruit, I want some. If it's something else... Then I'm not sure.
Want some fresh seafood? Me neither. Well, I might under different circumstances. I'd need a full kitchen in which to prepare such food, not just a microwave in a hotel room. They also had those eggs with the partially formed chicken inside at this market, but I'm not interested in those.
So I got some fruits and other things and headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Then off to the Mall of Asia, which I'm told is even bigger than the Mall of America. Finally, something in this country that's not tiny.
And Sweet Jesus is that mall big. Positively enormous. I'd have taken more pictures, but it was difficult to find a vantage point which truly conveyed the size. Not that size matters, of course. (I can say that, because I'm big.) The first interesting thing I found in the mall was an ice skating rink:
Also, apparently they were having a dog show in the mall:
Past the dog show, however, was outside. And I can smell the ocean out there. There's no way I'm passing up the opportunity to check out the shore. So I went outside and across the street to a kind of boardwalk-like area. No beach or anything, just a narrow rocky shoreline. But it was lovely.
I ended up going for a pretty long walk up and down the shoreline. The air was fresh, the breeze was cool, and the waves of the South China Sea (well, Manila Bay) were adding a little bit of ocean spray to the air. Very peaceful.
And there was this thing. Ya, I'm riding that. Gonna take me some photos. The gondolas were enclosed, so it was tough to get good photos through the foggy plexiglass. Some of them looked like this:
And some of them looked like this:
While I was on my walk, I saw this:
Is that some kind of shanty town? Are people living there? I wanted to get closer to take a look, but that may not go over so well with the locals. Ya, I'm sure they'd love some comparatively rich American walking around with his fancy camera taking pictures while looking for wifi on his iPhone.
As I walked back to the mall, I saw a mime:
It wasn't a proper mime, he/she (gah! lady-boys!) made sounds. But it was a weird controlled high-pitch squeal. Kind of hard to explain. Remember the show Bobby's World? The cartoon that Howie Mandel made? Remember Bobby's voice? Picture that, but with that high-pitched Chipmunks effect. It was kind of like that. Pretty funny performance, actually.
Then there was a kid on a Segway:
The mall had a lot of restaurants in it. I mean a lot. Including this Italian place...
Wait, is that dude telling me that he has some weed? Does this restaurant sell weed? That would be cool. The range of food choices was pretty extensive. Fancy restaurants, family restaurants, a large food court, tons of carts selling tons of various foods and smoothies and stuff, and so on. There was even this:
I actually quite like Spam, so that was pretty cool. I didn't eat at the mall, though. I was thinking about going to see a movie, but the lines at the in-mall theater were pretty ridiculous. Maybe another time. So I took a cab back to the hotel. I did go out one last time for the evening to pick up some supplies and some food. I'm in the mood for KFC, mostly because I want to have leftovers for the hotel room. So I want to get a bucket of chicken family meal. Also, since portions here are way too small, a family meal is really the way to go for me anyway. Unfortunately, KFC takes small portions to a whole new level. Behold, my shot of mashed potatoes:
Whatever. It was a pretty good day, now it's time to watch some TV and go to sleep.
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